Topic:Understanding Humble Chief Executive Officers: Connections to Top Management Team Integration and Middle Manager Responses

Speaker:Professor Anne S. TSUI, Motorola Professor of International Management Emerita of Arizona State University, Distinguished Professor, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Time: 3:00-5:00pm, Thursday, April 25, 2013

Location:Room 111, New Building of GSM, Peking University.

Abstract

In this study, we explore the concept of humility among chief executive officers (CEOs) and the process through which it is connected to top management team (TMT) integration and middle manager responses. We first develop and validate a comprehensive measure of humility using multiple samples, and then test a multilevel model of CEO humility linkage to top and middle manager processes. Our methodology involves survey data gathered twice from 328 TMT members and 645 middle managers in 63 private companies in China. We find CEO humility to be positively associated with empowering leadership behaviors, which in turn, correlates with TMT integration. TMT integration then positively relates to middle managers’ perception of empowering organizational climate, which is then associated with their work engagement, affective commitment, and job performance. Findings confirm our hypotheses based on social information processing theory: humble CEOs connect to top and middle managers through collective perceptions of empowerment at both levels. Qualitative data from CEO interviews provide additional insight into the meaning of humility among CEOs. Implications for future theoretical development and empirical research on leader humility are discussed. A second part of the seminar will focus on discussing how we respond to the critical comments of the editor and reviewers.